


Ponder Stibbons Breaks the Fourth Wall

by Jasjabberwocky



Category: Discworld - Terry Pratchett
Genre: Fourth Wall
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-23
Updated: 2015-03-23
Packaged: 2018-03-19 05:52:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 316
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3598794
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jasjabberwocky/pseuds/Jasjabberwocky
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Inspired by the Science of Discworld books. One-shot.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Ponder Stibbons Breaks the Fourth Wall

"Sir, there’s a chap down there on Roundworld- Rincewind met him- who’s writing stories about us."

"What, like we’re gods?"

"No, Archchancellor. Like … well, like we’re fictional."

"What?"

"Oh, you know, stories, like …" Ponder cast around for an example suitable to the Archchancellor’s mental age. "Like ‘Where’s My Cow?’”

"I will not be compared to a confused bovine, Stibbons!"

Privately, Ponder thought there were distinct similarities. “No, sir.”

Archchancellor Ridcully paused, intrigued but not willing to admit that he was. “What are they like, these stories?”

"Rincewind says they’re … funny, sir."

"Could I read them?"

Ponder hesitated. From the extracts that HEX had printed out to him, the books seemed rather more accurate about the senior faculty than he would like the Archchancellor to know. “I don’t think that would be a good idea, sir. It’d probably create a whole lot of paradoxes in space-time.”

"Oh. Well, we can’t have that."

"Sir, about the books, there’s something else … I, well, I’m beginning to think that he might be right."

"About what?"

"Us being fictional, sir."

“What?”

"There’s a series of them- The Science of Discworld- the Librarian was most insistent that I come down and read them … They seem to suggest, with a great deal of sound logic, that we didn’t create Roundworld, but instead this author on Roundworld created us.”

"Sounds like a load of nonsense. We know we created Roundworld. We remember us doing it.”

"Yes, but … The books say that he wrote us creating Roundworld as a way to … to explain its science to its inhabitants."

"Rubbish, Stibbons. You’ve been inside too long. Go out and get some fresh air; you’ll soon forget all these strange ideas."

And Ponder did do just that, but he thought as he went that although he would not forget the strange concepts he had been exposed to, it might just be best to keep them to himself.


End file.
